Eighty percent of Russians think that the death penalty...

Eighty percent of Russians think that the death penalty is permissible, the Public Opinion Foundation said based on a June 30 poll of 1,500 village and town residents nationwide. Seventy percent of those polled said that capital punishment should be applicable to murderers. Some said that only serial or extremely brutal murderers should be punished with death. Every fifth participant in the poll said that any cruelty or violence (rape, crime against human dignity, physical or psychological violence, insult and humiliation) should be punished by death. Twelve percent said that the death sentence should be handed down on drug charges. The same percentage insisted on killing people who commit crimes against children, such as murder, abduction or rape. Nine percent of the respondents support the death penalty for terrorism (terrorist acts, sabotage and hostage taking). Three percent said that high treason (espionage and divulgence of state secrets) must be punished with death, and 2% held to the Soviet tradition and proposed to punish economic misdeeds against the state and individuals with death. Two percent of the respondents said no person should be sentenced to death no matter what the crime might have been (no right to dispose of somebody's life, life in prison but not death sentence).
Sixty-one percent of those polled said that they did not approve of Russia's decision to uphold a moratorium n executions as required by the Council of Europe, while 27% said the opposite. Most opponents of the moratorium are people with incomplete secondary education (67%), villagers and supporters of Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov (69% each).
Those polled were also offered a multiple-choice question: Should the death penalty be used, should the moratorium be extended, or should the death penalty be banned? Sixty-seven percent of respondents supported executions, 11% stood for the moratorium, and 10% called for banning the death penalty.